Biography – Autobiography- Memoir

Ibn Al-Haytham: First Scientist

Ibn al-Haytham (“Alhazen” in Library of Congress cataloging) was born in Basra in 965. A Muslim who studied the works of Aristotle, Euclid, Archimedes, and Ptolemy, he developed an approach to science using experimentation and deduction and made significant observations and discoveries, particularly in the field of optics. Translations of his books influenced medieval European scientists and mathematicians from Bacon to Fermat to Kepler. Steffens notes that al-Haytham’s discovery of the cameraobscura may have changed Western art as well. Steffens has organized what is known of his subject’s life and work into a coherent narrative. He is quick to acknowledge gaps, but backs up inferences logically. Like the history of mathematics, the history of science is incomplete without an acknowledgment of early scholars in the Middle East. This clearly written introduction to al-Haytham, his society, and his contributions does that. The book concludes with a time line, source notes, a bibliography, and a list of Web sites.

Joan of Arc

A biography of the fifteenth-century peasant girl who led a French army to victory against the English and was burned at the stake for witchcraft.

No Crystal Stair

A documentary novel of the life and work of Lewis Michaux, Harlem bookseller

‘You can’t walk straight on a crooked line. You do you’ll break your leg. How can you walk straight in a crooked system?’

Lewis Michaux was born to do things his own way. When a white banker told him to sell fried chicken, not books, because Negroes don’t read,’ Lewis took five books and one-hundred dollars and built a bookstore. It soon became the intellectual center of Harlem, a refuge for everyone from Muhammad Ali to Malcolm X.

In No Crystal Stair, Coretta Scott King Award-winning author Vaunda Micheaux Nelson combines meticulous research with a storyteller’s flair to document the life and times of her great uncle Lewis Michaux, an extraordinary literacy pioneer of the Civil Rights era.

‘My life was no crystal stair, far from it. But I’m taking my leave with some pride. It tickles me to know that those folks who said I could never sell books to black people are eating crow. I’d say my seeds grew pretty damn well. And not just the book business. It’s the more important business of moving our people forward that has real meaning.’

See the review at WOW Review, Volume 5, Issue 1

The Librarian Who Measured The Earth

Describes the life and work of Eratosthenes, the Greek geographer and astronomer who accurately measured the circumference of the Earth.

Dave The Potter

To us it is just dirt, the ground we walk on…But to Daveit was clay, the plain and basic stuffupon which he formed a lifeas a slave nearly 200 years ago. Dave was an extraordinary artist, poet, and potter living in South Carolina in the 1800s. He combined his superb artistry with deeply observant poetry, carved onto his pots, transcending the limitations he faced as a slave. In this inspiring and lyrical portrayal, National Book Award nominee Laban Carrick Hill’s elegantly simple text and award-winning artist Bryan Collier’s resplendent, earth-toned illustrations tell Dave’s story, a story rich in history, hope, and long-lasting beauty.

I, Galileo

I, Galileo Galilei, am old and can no longer see, but there was a time I saw all the way to the stars–the moon, the planets, the sun.  Their movements showed me a truth so profound, it changed our view of the entire universe.  A truth so unpopular, it would get me into a world of trouble.

Galileo’s inventions and insights were so great that Einstein called him the “father of modern science.”  But in his own time, Galileo’s idea of a sun-centered solar system was considered radical and even dangerous–he was branded a heretic, imprisoned in his ome, and banned from discussing science with anyone.  In this inspired biopgraphy, Bonnie Christensen lets Galileo himself tell the tale–and his genial narration makes this giant of science feel more real and accessible than ever before.  Lavishly illustrated in rich jewel tones, this is a perfect introduction to a most remarkable man.

Martin De Porres

As the illegitimate son of a Spanish nobleman and a former slave, Martin de Porres was born into extreme poverty. Even so, his mother begged the church fathers to allow him into the priesthood. Instead, Martin was accepted as a servant boy. But soon, the young man was performing miracles. Rumors began to fly around the city of a strange mulatto boy with healing hands, who gave first to the people of the barrios. Martin continued to serve in the church, until he was finally received by the Dominican Order, no longer called the worthless son of a slave, but rather a saint and the rose in the desert.

Galileo’s Journal 1609-1610

This fictional journal is from the year in which Galileo constructed his own telescope and began to record his astronomical discoveries. Includes additional nonfiction biographical information.

Isabella of Castile

In a twist on the classic fairy tale, a princess in 15th-century Spain refused to wait to be rescued by a prince and instead chose one for herself. Even then, she would not marry him until they’d reached an agreement that was revolutionary for her time—their marriage was an equal partnership captured in the motto “To stand as high, as high to stand, Isabella and Ferdinand.” This book tells Isabella of Castile’s story with sections on the clothes she wore, the foods she ate, and why she is remembered today. Without her, both Spain and the United States would not exist in their current forms.

Qutlugh Terkan Khatun of Kirman

This book presents information about the life of the fourteenth-century Persian noblewoman who was captured and sold into slavery as a child, but whose intelligence, beauty, and compassion led her to become princess, and eventually sole ruler of Kirman after the death of her husband.